Humanverse

Fancy vs Fanita

American parents have registered 573 Fancys since 1880, against 33 Fanitas. Fancy is still ahead, with 11 babies in 2025.

Babies given each name, 1880–2025

Births per year: Fancy against Fanita, 1880 to 2025 0 10 20 30 40 1880 1900 1920 1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Fancy Fanita

Each line is every baby given the name that year, girls and boys added together — the only count that means the same thing for both names. A line breaks where the name fell below five babies in a year — the point at which the SSA stops publishing it — rather than being drawn through a figure nobody published. A single published year in a gap shows as a dot.

Who was ahead

Of the 53 years in which either name was published, Fancy for 51 years and Fanita for 2 years. The lead changed hands 2 times.

Side by side

  Fancy Fanita
Total US births 57333
Most in one year 3621
Babies in 2025 11under 5
Estimated living today 56030
Median age today 2560
Peak year 19911965
Best rank 3,097th girls2,684th girls
Rank in 2025 8,860thunranked
First recorded 19521965
Girls / boys 573 / 033 / 0

A rank is a position within one sex’s list for one year, so the two rank rows are not subtracted from one another and the winning column is not marked on them. The living figure is a life-table estimate, not a count.

Which name is older

Half of the Fanitas alive today are over 60; half the Fancys are over 25. That is 35 years between them: two names in use at the same time, worn by two different generations.

Compare something else

Related comparisons

Social Security Administration birth records, 1880–2025, public domain. Full histories: Fancy and Fanita.